Parents upset with plans to shift pupils Idea of youngsters on bus with older kids also panned

Parents upset with
plans to shift pupils
Idea of youngsters
on bus with older
kids also panned

Some parents and staff members in the Manalapan-English-town Regional School District are not pleased with plans that will shift administrators to different schools within the district beginning in September.

Approximately 225 parents and staff members met with the Board of Education on Jan. 22 to voice their objections to the plan which will move some, but not all, administrators to other district schools when the Wemrock Brook School, Millhurst Road, opens in September.

At the same time, some students may be moved to different schools under a proposed new busing schedule. The planned schedule pairs younger students and older students on the same bus, and for some students the day may begin at the crack of dawn.

The administrative plan, which the board approved 8-0 at the special Jan. 22 meeting, calls for Robert Williams, assistant principal at the Manalapan Englishtown Middle School (MEMS), to become the new principal at the middle school. Two new assistant principals will be hired at MEMS, which houses all of the district’s seventh- and eighth-graders.

Thomas Sherman, principal, will move from MEMS to Pine Brook School (4-6), where he will be principal. Donald Colbert, the present assistant principal, will remain at Pine Brook School.

Jacqueline Martin, principal of Milford Brook School, will become the principal of the Wemrock Brook School (4-6). An assistant principal at Wemrock Brook has not yet been hired.

At Lafayette Mills School (4-6), Scott Taylor, an assistant principal at MEMS, will become the new principal of in September. Mel Reid will continue to be the assistant principal at that school.

Michael Garreau, principal of Lafayette Mills School, will be the principal at Milford Brook School (K-3), and Jessica Gent, assistant principal, will remain at that school.

There will be no changes at Taylor Mills School (K-3), where Ruth Jacobson is principal and Lisa Marino is the assistant principal, nor will there be any changes at Clark Mills School (K-3), where Charles Boehm is the principal and Stephanie Kuhns is the assistant principal.

Superintendent of Schools Joseph F. Scozzari reviewed the aims of an ad hoc committee which has been investigating several issues within the district. These aims included the redistricting of students for the September 2001 opening of the Wemrock Brook School; the maintenance of efficient 100 percent busing; the setting of bus schedules to include the new school; and the relief of overcrowded classrooms.

Scozzari said a survey was taken which indicated parents are concerned with the length of the students’ commute, a prime factor in the transportation portion of the survey. Community members also indicated that they preferred the modified Princeton (Ohio) Plan, K-3, 4-6, 7-8 organization for the district’s schools.

A proposed schedule was set up which pairs schools for attendance purposes only. Student who will attend Milford Brook for grades K-3, will attend Pine Brook for grades 4-6. This area includes Conmack Lane, Vail Valley, Globar Terrace, Oak Knoll, everything north of Sobechko Road and every development on the north side of Gordons Corner Road from Route 9 to Pease Road.

Students who will attend Taylor Mills School for grades K-3, will attend Lafayette Mills School, 4-6. This area includes Tennent Road between Taylors Mills Road and Church Lane; all of Craig Road and Symmes Drive; Taylors Mills between Route 522 and Route 9; everything east of Route 9; Tennent Road north of Taylors Mills Road and south of Route 9 and everything on the south side of Gordons Corner Road between Pease Road and Route 9.

Students who will attend Clark Mills for grades K-3, will attend Wemrock Brook for grades 4-6. This area includes Route 522, Englishtown and south, Wilson Avenue, Sobechko Road, all developments on the west side of Pension Road and Pension Road between Sobechko and Gordons Corner roads on the west side.

In matters of busing, the proposed schedule indicates that 1,915 students who attend MEMS and Wemrock Brook would arrive at school at 7:25 a.m. and depart at 1:55 p.m.; 1,450 students who attend Pine Brook and Lafayette Mills would arrive at 8:10 a.m. and depart at 2:30 p.m.; 679 students at Clark Mills will arrive at 8:40 a.m. and depart at 3 p.m.; and 1,418 students at Milford Brook and Taylor Mills would arrive at 9:10 a.m. and leave at 3:35 p.m.

Projected class sizes for the 2001-02 are: kindergarten, 20-22 students; grades one through three, 21-23 students; grades four through six, 24-26. No estimate was given for class size in the seventh and eighth grades.

During the public portion of the meeting, 37 parents and district staff members commented on a variety of matters concerning the redistricting proposal and the administrative moves.

Michael Garreau, principal, Lafayette Mills School, said the original plan called for all principals to be moved. At a meeting of the principals and the superintendent, Garreau said, the principals indicated that they wanted no changes made. He said Scozzari told them every principal would have a new assignment next year.

"When the rules are made and applied, they should be applied uniformly," Garreau said. "If the rules are forgiven for one school, why are they enforced for two other schools? Why is it not possible for Mr. Sherman to remain in the middle school and for me to remain in Lafayette Mills?"

Garreau suggested that the plan was poorly researched, flawed and ill conceived.

Georgette Parisi, parent, questioned the time that her children will return home from school.

She told the board, "I hope when the teachers are reassigned to different grades or schools that you take into consideration the grades that the teachers want to be teaching for next year."

Scozzari replied, "We did the best that we could within the framework of the 100 percent busing. Many of the same staff that are now in Milford Brook, that are very happy when they first arrived there, had trepidations about going to the new school. Change is something that naturally upsets people. With the camaraderie and the professionalism in the school, it goes away very quickly and it’s a new happy place."

Nancy Goedtel, a teacher at Milford Brook, asked if the teachers could be notified of the school changes in a timely manner.

Lucy Vigliotti, Lone Star Lane, commented, "I don’t think it’s a good idea putting a fourth-grader on a bus with seventh- and eighth-graders. I’m just not happy about that. I’m also not happy about the time — 7 a.m. is way too early to send a fourth-grader to school."

Jeff Wurmbrand, Hospitality Way, said 7 a.m. is too early for his fourth-grade daughter to be waiting for the bus to arrive. He added, "Traveling on buses with 12- and 13-year-olds is totally out of hand."

Lonnie Gross, Taylors Mills Road, was concerned that his children will be leaving almost two hours apart on the new schedule.

"It will be very difficult for two working parents," Gross said.

Diane Piorkowski, a teacher at the Lafayette Mills School, told the board, "There is no reason for anyone (referring to the new principal) to go there (Lafayette Mills School) with a high tech background, when there is no technology that is ready to be put there."

Referring to the busing schedule, Piorkowski said, "This district definitely needs some more buses. Children at Lafayette Mills are still there boarding at 3 p.m. and they were supposed to leave at 2:30. We have some kids waiting there forever to get on a bus."

It was noted at a board meeting in December that the cost of a new bus would be about $70,000 and the driver’s salary would bring the figure into the range of more than $90,000. Additionally, there is presently a shortage of qualified school bus drivers, according to district administrators.

"The redistricting makes perfectly good sense to me," said Andrea Miller, Glendale Drive. "I would like the board to consider opening the school, even for a half-day, so that parents who want to can take their children in to meet their new teacher and give the child an idea of where the lunchroom is and where the bathrooms are."

Other concerns which were brought before the board included: fourth-graders waiting in the dark for their bus; yearly school changes for some children; concerns about mold that was found in some classrooms at the Milford Brook School in September 2000; conflicting times with religious after school programs and other activities; and a contingency plan if the Wemrock Brook School doesn’t open on time.

Responding to parental concerns about having fourth-graders and eighth-graders on the same bus, Scozzari said, "Your children will be safe on the buses. In many cases the older children watch out for the younger children. We have a standard. We would not propose something if we thought it would not work.

"It will work and it will work (in an) orderly (manner). I would not make a recommendation to the board for their consideration if I did not believe it would work," the superintendent said.

Additionally, Scozzari said the plan that is put into place effective in September will remain in place until it is necessary to add another new school.

"What I’m trying to do is to create a situation of stability for the next few years, so the children that are transferred in 2001 will remain in their grade level locations for their school career," Scozzari said. "My hope is that we can do that and put in place something stable that will last until the next school" is built.

Board member Diane Padlo said the board had received a great deal of input and a lot of good ideas. She said the board members will meet and discuss the issues that were raised.

Regarding the issue of having fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders riding on a bus with eighth-graders, Padlo said, "We will not create an unsafe condition for your kids. I absolutely assure you of that. Change is tough. We’re not going to do it tonight, obviously."

Board member Dennis Walsh said the ideas have to be tweaked a bit.

"We have to go back to the drawing board and see what makes sense," he said.

Board members voted 8-0 to table the redistricting issue until Feb. 6.